Sunday, June 29, 2008

Bullwinkle Shows Good Design Principles: 1 Asymmetrical Construction

How about if I use this drawing to do a few posts, each one pointing out a separate aspect of good cartoon drawing?

ASYMMETRY IN THE LARGEST CONSTRUCTED FORMS

These characters have good construction, BUT notice that the forms that make them up are not perfect ovals or circles. They are ORGANIC shapes, asymmetrical.

Not mirror images left and right, or top and bottom.This is a hard technique do right. First you have to understand basic construction. Then you have to be free enough that you can draw shapes that are not mathematical, but still look convincingly solid.The asymmetry has to be subtle, not wild and wonky, without any form at all.Real things in nature have form, yet hey are not perfectly symmetrical, and a god cartoonist applies this concept to his drawings to make them feel natural. Warm and not clinical.

One thing that I always, always liked about Ren & Stimpy was that there never seemed to be a definitive version of the rascals. I liked that. I admired it. It let me know that the people behind it were thinking.

John- does asymmetry work because when we look- at anything, we aren't concerned about the composition, we crop the image in our focus- honing in on what aspect is important by walking towards it or bringing it closer to your eyes. So, looking- at life, naturally- is asymmetrical?

Actually, the reason why so many cartoon studios want you to draw symetrical these days is because someone told them that there was a scientific experiment to proove the 'mathematics of beauty' and they said that the further someone's face gets from symmetry the more revulsed we are by it.

While it is true that there were tests of this sort done ( and subsequently a documentary on the subject hosted by John Cleese and Elizabeth Hurley ), it's certainly a matter of taste in the end. I think if you don't want to identify with characters, make them symetrical, otherwise they're not unique.

That damn Wall-E robot's about as unique as any other symetrical robot Lucas had in the background of his Star Wars films.

Thanks for the form drawings, John! It's much easier for me to see the original forms in drawings now thanks to these visual lessons.

John, I know this is completely off-topic, but I wondered if you had any thoughts on Hugh Harman's late-thirties MGM cartoons? I swear I can see the influence of Clampett's B&W Merrie Melodies on "The Mad Maestro" and "Art Gallery" - still sort of poor man's Disney, mind you, but with faster, funnier movement and nudging towards observed behavior, especially in "Art Gallery" when Nero giggles like sugar-high little kid. Still kind of clicheed thirties stuff, but better.

FYI...I had read an older post about your "FLASH" usage some yeas ago. Just in case you neve came across the softwae called ToonBoom, it is a flash based solution, but it has an animatos interface, and does decent lip sync.